What's next for embattled Region 12?

Published 12:05 am, Saturday, May 10, 2014

Voters in Region 12 could be asked one more time to pay $8.3 million for repairs and renovations to Shepaug Middle/High School.

But the Board of Education has yet to determine how to move forward on the knotty question of elementary schools.

In an April 29 referendum, voters rejected a plan to close the three elementary schools in Bridgewater, Roxbury and Washington and build a consolidated elementary school on the Shepaug campus. On the same ballot, voters defeated a proposed $40 millions bonding package that would have financed the consolidated school as well as upgraded the middle/high school.

The Board of Education decided Monday to take the consolidated school portion off the table and instead request $8.3 million for the Shepaug upgrades alone.

The district's director of finance, Bob Giesen, was directed to contact bond counsel about drafting a new proposal. A public hearing would be scheduled to discuss it, followed by a referendum vote before the end of this school year.

Monday's meeting was a heated one, as board members argued about how to proceed in the wake of the referendum.

Bridgewater board member Alan Brown argued that grades could be reconfigured in Burnham and Booth Free schools in Bridgewater and Roxbury without the need for a referendum.

"I've talked to Richard Hoffman, who was principal of those schools in the 1970s and 1980s," Brown said. "In 1975, fourth grades were combined and, in the 1982-83 school year, second grades were combined and moved forward until that class graduated from Burnham. There was no vote taken to do that."

But other members balked at the idea, pointing to the experience of Region 14, where changes to the retgional plan sparked a court battle.

"All we have to do is look to Region 14," said board member Valerie Andersen of Washington.

"I appreciate the history lesson," added board member Jennifer Pote of Washington. "But the parents of 41 Booth Free students don't want that reconfiguration."

Superintendent Pat Cosentino recently received a letter from 25 Booth Free School parents asking the board not to use Booth Free for grades 3-5 and Burnham for grades K-2.

"We do not support this plan," the parents wrote. "We supported consolidation because we wanted our children to be in a larger, more vibrant school environment. This school merge plan does not provide this opportunity for our children."

Board members were not the only ones whose tempers flared Monday.

Audience members at the meeting expressed anger about how consolidation had been handled, complaining that elementary schools have not been properly maintained.

"A total of $459,000 may have been approved to elementary school repairs, but that money clearly has not been spent on the schools," said Bridgewater First Selectman Curtis Read. "Perhaps that has purposely been done to assure their closing."

"I've never voted against an education budget before," said Elliot Woolwich of Bridgewater. "It hurt to vote no. But having money spent on architect's drawings before the question of consolidation was ever put before the voters put people off. It made it seem like consolidation was a fait accompli."